Bullfrog
Bullfrog (sometimes spelt as BullFrog), is a heavyweight robot from the Netherlands which attempted to enter Series 8 of Robot Wars, but it was ultimately not selected to compete. Team RCC had previously competed in both series of Dutch Robot Wars with RCC and Blackdevil Warzone, with limited success. Design Bullfrog is a green and red, invertible wedge-shaped robot armed with a rear-hinged pneumatic flipper, powered by a 140mm-bore ram. The robot features exposed wheels, powered by Iskra 24V 1.2Kw motors, and is designed to run inverted in a similar manner to Raging Knightmare and Thermidor 2, but needs to self-right in order to use its flipper. Bullfrog was built at a cost of £2,000, and its armour is constructed from HARDOX 450. Qualification Bullfrog applied for Series 8, but was not selected to take part, with news of Team RCC's rejection from the series being revealed on February 5th 2016: Team RCC did not apply for Bullfrog to enter Series 9 due to time constraints, also choosing not to enter Series 10https://www.facebook.com/teamrccrobot/posts/1150085011786764. Series Record UK Series Dutch Series Outside Robot Wars Bullfrogbreed2009.jpg|Bullfrog Breed as it looked when it was first built in 2008 Bullfrog.png|Bullfrog, prior to Team RCC's rebuild Bullfrog.jpg|Leo with Mario de Jongh and Bullfrog Bullfrog was originally built in 2008 as Bullfrog Breed by Harwich-based roboteer Tony Fowler, with the intention of it being used for live events. Bullfrog Breed featured a double-wedged design with a flipper and the same green colour scheme as its successor, but was not invertible. It initially fought in a single battle in 2009 against Thor, but lost after lasting only fifteen seconds according to the team. For the 2011 UK Championships, hosted at the O2 Arena, London, Bullfrog was renamed and rebuilt as a joint effort by various Dutch and Belgian teams via e-mail. However, it fell in the group stages against Tilly XP, Disc-Truction! and Tilly 2 Evo. Soon afterwards, Fowler retired from robot combat events, and sold Bullfrog to Team RCC, who continued to fight with it at live events across the UK and Europe. On April 15 2017, Bullfrog was put up for salehttp://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/threads/13565-bullfrog, as the team wished to focus on featherweights and raptor robots and was sold to Team Slam. In 2019, Team Slam put Bullfrog up for sale once again to focus on their rebuild of Dantomkia. It was bought by Team Code Green - a school team in Norfolk to aid in STEM Educational Experiences, captained by Jevan Woodrow. A few design changes were made including new front armour to deflect spinners if the team were ever unlucky enough to face them. This was a donation from Team Slam and was originally to be used on Vulture if they were ever drawn against Carbide in Robot Wars Series 10. A new colour scheme was adopted and the robot went for it's first fight under new ownership in Colchester at an Extreme Robots event in the September of that year. Bullfrog wasn't overly ready for this fight, lacking internal components but the community pulled together to help the robot into the arena. Due to the nature of the bodge and lack of experience, Bullfrog went into the fight as a pusher as part of Team Eruption alongside team mates Deadlock. Here they fought old rivals Thor - part of Team Ripper for the event. Despite being rushed together and lacking components, Bullfrog made a good start in the fight, managing to get under Thor and push it to an arena wall. Thor later retaliated with an axe blow to the flipper. Deadlock managed to get Thor against a wall where Bullfrog gave a nudge while driving past at the same time as Thor swinging the axe, getting stuck on the arena railing and counted out. With the win for Team Eruption secure, Deadlock turned on Bullfrog, grabbing it and turning it over. At this point, Deadlock's weaponry and drive came out of alignment causing them to crawl around the arena while a non-flipper Bullfrog attempted to keep moving but soon stopped and was counted out. The team have since been making plans to get the robot running properly and with another upgrade - a pair of horns to aid with driving inverted and to prevent robots from driving up and over Bullfrog to gain more control of their opponents. The team hope to test this modification at Robots Live! Grantham in June 2020. Robot Wars Live Events Bullfrog first appeared in the Robot Wars live events at Portsmouth in March 2013, where it faced TR2, The Steel Avenger and Weird mAlice in the heat. However, it lost in the heat stage, and has made infrequent appearances since due to the team being located in The Netherlands. Bullfrog reappeared at the 2016 Robot Wars Portsmouth event, where it won its first battle against Gabriel and Luzifer despite having its flipper jammed open. Next, it fought against Behemoth and Ripper, managing to flip both of its opponents around before being thrown out the arena by Ripper. Bullfrog again won against Gabriel and Luzifer after this despite losing power to its weapon near the end of the fight, before fighting Behemoth, Cherub and Rattler again later on. It performed strongly in the latter battle, flipping Cherub out of the arena and immobilising Behemoth, before emerging victorious after Rattler lost drive to one side. References External Links *Team RCC website *Team RCC Facebook page Category:Dutch Robots Category:Invertible Robots Category:Competitors in Robot Wars Live Events Category:Animal Based Robots Category:Robots built while Robot Wars was off-air Category:Robots which failed to qualify for any main series Category:Robots with Rear-hinged Flippers